Shipments of business and general aviation aircraft fell across all sectors during the first quarter of 2016, triggered by the continued slump in demand for new platforms from the global marketplace.
According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), deliveries of piston-engined, turboprop and business jet aircraft dropped by 3.7% year on year to 422 aircraft, prompting a fall in book value of 9.5% to $4 billion.
“The entire industry is feeling the impact of retrenchment in the energy sector, as well as global geopolitical and economic insecurity,” GAMA president and chief executive Pete Bunce says of the market’s quarterly performance.
The association, headquartered in Washington DC, recorded 122 business jet shipments between January and the end of March – six fewer than in the first quarter of 2015. Bombardier and Gulfstream recorded a fall in shipments of 14 and five aircraft respectively for the period, but Embraer saw its deliveries jump from 12 to 23 aircraft – almost entirely on the back of demand for its Legacy 600/650 and Phenom 300.
Honda Aircraft made its debut onto the GAMA database, recording three shipments of its HA-420 HondaJet during the first three months.
Honda Aircraft
GAMA’s quarterly report does not include shipments of Dassault Falcon business jets, as the French airframer releases its deliveries and earnings at six-month intervals. However Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer database records six Falcon deliveries for the period, matching 2015’s first-quarter tally.
Shipments of single- and twin-engined turboprops fell by nearly 7%, to 109 units, GAMA reveals. Daher’s TBM 900 was one of the worst performers for the period, recording a drop of six units. This was almost entirely due the introduction in April of the new flagship TBM 930, to which many of its TBM 900 orders were transferred.
Daher (TBM 930)
Pilatus put on a solid performance in the first quarter, however, with shipments of its recently enhanced PC-12NG climbing by nine units to 16 aircraft.
The piston-engined sector remained stable year on year at 191 units, according to GAMA. Only Cirrus and Piper fared well though, delivering 57 and 20 units, up from their respective totals of 43 and 12 for the first three months of 2015.
Source: Flight International
